For example, in a manufacturing process of industrial products, a container storage facility is used to temporarily store containers that accommodate materials, intermediate products, or the like while waiting for a process or the like to be performed. For example, if an item contained in a container is a semiconductor substrate, a reticle substrate, or the like, a container storage facility that is configured to be able to supply a cleaning gas into the stored containers is used in order to avoid contamination of the surface of the substrates while being stored.
As an example, WO 2015/194255A (Patent Document 1) discloses a container storage facility that includes a storage rack (rack 7) that has a plurality of storage sections (storage shelves 7A), and gas supply devices (purge devices 30) for supplying a cleaning gas to the respective storage sections. In the container storage facility in Patent Document 1, the gas supply devices are divided into a plurality of groups (group 1, group 2, . . . group M), and are configured so that each group supplies cleaning gas via branch-type supply pipe (main pipe 412 and supply pipes 33). Note that, in the following description, a group of storage sections that are supplied with cleaning gas from a shared supply pipe will be referred to as a “storage section group”.
In Patent Document 1, containers [storage containers F] stored are handled equally without being distinguished from one another. However, usually, the cleaning gas supplied into the containers is discharged to the outside by an amount by which the pressure of the cleaning gas exceeds a predetermined pressure. If, for example, the manufacturers of the containers are different, the value of ventilation resistance when the cleaning gas flows through the respective containers may differ in some cases. In addition, if the containers are made by the same manufacturer but are of different models, similarly, the value of ventilation resistance when the cleaning gas flows through the respective containers may differ in some cases. For this reason, if a plurality of containers are stored without any specific intention, the flow rate of actually supplied cleaning gas may vary due to a difference in the value of ventilation resistance among a plurality of containers that belong to the same storage section group (i.e. that receive a supply of the cleaning gas from the shared supply pipe).